Typical computer systems, especially computer systems using graphical user interface (GUI) systems such as Microsoft WINDOWS, are optimized for accepting user input from one or more discrete input devices such as a keyboard and for entering text, and a pointing device such as a mouse with one or more buttons for driving the user interface. Virtually all software applications designed to run on Microsoft WINDOWS are optimized to accept user input in the same manner. For instance, many applications make extensive use of the right mouse button (a “right click”) to display context-sensitive command menus. The user may generate other gestures using the mouse such as by clicking the left button of the mouse (a “left click”), or by clicking the left or right button of the mouse and moving the mouse while the button is depressed (either a “left click drag” or a “right click drag”).
In some environments, a mouse is not usable or desirable. For example, in a digitizer tablet environment, the primary input device may be a stylus. While a stylus attempts to provide pad and paper-like feel to a computing environment, current systems are limited. For example, the use of a stylus in a graphical user interface is limited to tapping on various items for selection. See, for example, the Palm-series of products using the Palm OS 3.0 operating system. Further, in stylus-based input environments, a user is continually forced to select tools or operations from a remote tool bar, generally on a top or bottom of a screen. While a user can type in letters or have the digitizer recognize handwriting, these operations require selecting a keyboard input mode and writing in a predefined portion of the digitizer, respectively. In short, requiring a user to tell the computer, for every new input, what a user wants to do makes stylus-based computing difficult for the average user. Accordingly, stylus based inputs have been relegated to personal data assistants (PDAs) where significant user input is not possible. Mainstream computing still requires the use of at least a keyboard and mouse (or mouse-based input device, for example, trackballs, touch-pads, and other mouse substitutes).
Accordingly, a need exists for permitting a user to perform all operations of a mouse-type device using a stylus.